How to Start a Firestorm
I must admit, I did not set out to start a fire storm. But apparently, I did. You see, I published an article on Huffington Post on How Parents are Sabotaging Their Own Kids. It was purely from my own observations and interactions in the various areas of my career. It was not meant to be an indictment of anyone’s parenting. It was meant to be purely helpful to those who wanted to give their kid a leg up.
Interestingly enough, the firestorm didn’t start brewing in the comments section of the Huffington Post. It started when a friend of mine posted link to my article in our alumni Facebook group. That post sparked an avalanche of discussions on whether I was actually a parent (yes, I am thank you very much) to things like my parenting skills (or lack thereof) to even my career choices…(wow, kick a girl while she’s down!)
I am not saying that everyone was against my thoughts and suggestions in the article. In fact, some came to my defense using examples from their own careers and what they have witnessed as evidence. But seriously, I must admit, I felt attacked. But what was worse, was that I felt attacked by my own people. After all, I spent 4 years (and a lot of money) on this campus for the right to call myself an alum and now my own people are turning on me.
But once I stepped back, I realized…the discussion wasn’t actually about me. It was because many of the people responding to my article felt that I was attacking their style of parenting. In reality, attacking them and their choices as parents was never my intention.
My intention was merely to bring awareness to something I was seeing all too often. I know that parents weren’t doing things to intentionally inflict future harm on their kids, but I am guessing they must have missed that section of my article while steam was coming out of their ears!
Look, I get it. Being a parent is hard…especially now. But my job is to help the millennial generation transition into the workforce…SUCCESSFULLY! That means I have to call things as I see them. And sometimes, the truth hurts…on both sides.
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